


The Sanctuary Christmas Ball

by Lilboppaloola



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: F/F, F/M, i just took bits of each and went with it, it's not quite a fulfilment of any one request, so i hope this turned out okay for you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21821419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilboppaloola/pseuds/Lilboppaloola
Summary: Canon is a lump of playdough and I am an angry child who just wants to throw it at walls. We fall somewhere in the start of Phase 2 but other than that good luck. Post SPX, I guess.Either way, Queen China is having a ball and Val is not a completely suicidal depressed mess (just a hint of angst). Skug is just a little apprehensive but he soon finds out it's hard to care what people think of you when you're dancing with the love of your life and she's smiling up at you as if she really does think you're both going to be okay after all.Tanith is gay for Val (and so am I), and despite supposedly being the most hated woman in the room, no one's going to lay a finger on Val without some serious backlash.
Relationships: Valkyrie Cain & Skulduggery Pleasant, Valkyrie Cain/Skulduggery Pleasant, Valkyrie Cain/Tanith Low, tanith low/militsa gnosis
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25
Collections: Skulduggery Pleasant Fic Exchange 2019





	The Sanctuary Christmas Ball

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LassieLowrider](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LassieLowrider/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Tenth Decennial Requiem Ball](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11176377) by [Mooncactus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mooncactus/pseuds/Mooncactus). 



"We're not going." Skulduggery said.

China arched a delicate eyebrow. "I beg your pardon? It's the annual Sanctuary Christmas Ball," she stated pointedly. "It's tradition, first of all, and, more importantly, it's the first large-scale social event since yourself and Valkyrie officially became part of our law enforcement division. You both must present a reformed, united front. First impressions are paramount, Detective Pleasant of the Sanctuary’s own Arbiter Corps.”

Skulduggery tilted his head. “You mean you need to reassure people that your personal decision to stand behind a mass murderer and her accomplice was a good choice.”

China smiled her dazzling smile. “I think you’re more of an accessory, actually. Or perhaps guilty of the obstruction of justice, although that is nothing new for you, my dear, is it?”  
She spoke with only the slightest edge to her voice. “Either way, it was a decision made by the full governing body of the Irish Sanctuary, I think you’ll find.”

Skulduggery scoffed. “Full governing body? You’re the sole dictator, the one true ruler, the Queen of Roarhaven herself, Supreme Mage–” His laughter interrupted him and there was mocking in his tone despite its hardness. “Don’t pretend like you aren’t completely aware of that fact, because it’s how you orchestrated this whole thing, putting yourself atop the hierarchy like you’ve always wanted.” He chuckled bitterly.

China fixed him with an icy gaze and, when she spoke, the edge in her voice was cutting. “Then as the appointed ‘monarch’, as you say, I order you to respect my request and fulfil your obligations to this Sanctuary as we continue to establish ourselves amongst the local and international magical communities.”

Skulduggery stood there, unstoppable force versus immovable object, and folded his arms. “I’m sorry, but Valkyrie and I are planning to spend Christmas Day with her family. She won’t be able to handle a full day socializing if we’re out until all hours the night before.” There was no hesitation on his part.

“Appearances be damned, we won’t be attending. Not this year, at least,” he amended.

“We will be, actually,” said a calm voice from behind his shoulder. It was at that moment Valkyrie Cain strode confidently through the double doors of the Throne room, a vision in a tight black suit. “Or I will be, anyway, and it would be nice not to have to drive in heels. Traffic next week will be awful as it is, thanks to the holiday season.”

Skulduggery spun around to face her in surprise, unfolding his arms. “Are you sure? I thought, with it being Christmas and all, that you would rather skip any unnecessary strain…”

Valkyrie looked at him with a steady gaze and only the slightest tremor in her voice. “We’re doing it.”

“Well that settles it, then,” China announced brightly, nodding to Valkyrie, who slowly inclined her head in the other woman’s direction.

Skulduggery shot her a sharp glance, which she met with a smug smile, before turning back to Valkyrie. He placed a hand on her forearm, and when he spoke his tone was serious. “You don’t have to do this, you know, not if you don’t want to.”

She tossed him a brief smile, focusing more on the attentive expression of the Supreme Mage where a hint of pride was visible as she listened to hear Valkyrie’s decision.  
“I know. I want to. Besides,” she grinned up at him. “We’ve got an impression to make.”

...  
“Since when do you care about what kind of impression you make?” Skulduggery asked as they walked together towards the imposing concrete grey of the Sanctuary car park. “You have to do what’s best for you, Valkyrie, and if that includes skipping a ballroom full of people that neither of us really know or have spoken to on more than the one occasion, then so be it.”

“I am doing what’s best for me. I have to go to this thing, try and move forward, you know?” Valkyrie looked up at him before shaking her head and shoving her hands into her jacket pockets to fight the cold that tried to bite her bare fingers.

He looked at her in confusion. “What does it matter what people think? Since when do you care?” he pressed.

“Since I murdered over a thousand people in one afternoon and spent the last five years in exile, tearing myself to shreds and watching my self-confidence dissipate into nothingness.”  
Her voice caught on the final word, preventing her reply from quite qualifying as scathing.

Skulduggery stopped.  
She brushed past him and kept going, passing an assortment of ordinary cars and commercial vehicles on her way to the Bentley. It stuck out, as usual, gleaming under the fluorescent lights as Valkyrie slammed the door behind her. Her hands were clenched into fists resting on her knees by the time he slid into the driver’s seat beside her. He looked across at her silently. Valkyrie refused to meet his eyes, instead choosing to stare fixedly out the window.

“Okay,” he said softly. “I…didn’t realize. Well, no.” He shook his head. “The idea occurred to me. I simply didn’t think.”  
He exhaled heavily. “I just want what’s best for you.”

Valkyrie whipped her head around sharply, hair falling over her face. “I don’t need wrapping in cotton wool for the rest of my life, Skulduggery.”

He moved as if to push the loose strands back behind her ear and she glared at him until he sat back, hands placed on the wheel.  
Skulduggery sighed. “No, you’re doing remarkably well, actually. It’s me who’s failing to adjust.”

“What?” Valkyrie asked incredulously. “Adjust to what exactly? My mental state being a fucking mess? Because that’s been going downhill for quite a long time and I figured, with your detective skills, you might have noticed before now.” She laughed in disbelief.

He shook his head, running a hand over the brim of his hat. “I did notice, right from the start, because I know you better than anybody, Valkyrie.” When he spoke, he sounded suddenly very tired.

“And I should have done more. For you. To make it easier, to make it better, just somehow in any way more manageable for you going through hell alone.”

She stared at him with pain in those big brown eyes and it was Skulduggery’s turn to look away.

“But I didn’t,” he continued. “I was ignorant and I was useless, and I tried so hard to push you out of the box I put myself in once upon a time that I failed to see you were your own person, with your own mistakes and your own needs – Needs that I have neglected.” Skulduggery angled his body towards her, gaze finding hers again.

“After everything I did during the war, everything that I became, I had to go away and find myself again.” He sighed. “Except that man was gone, both literally and figuratively, and so no one expected for me to return the same as before.” He straightened the cuffs of his shirtsleeves with a huff. “Yet, I have failed to award you that same luxury. For the past five years, I have been waiting every single day for my best friend and partner Valkyrie Cain to come home to me.”  
“It’s only now that I finally see that she was never going to come back as I expected, after all that to which I abandoned her. It’s about time I sat up and took notice of you, the young woman who has grown and changed and is utterly different to the girl I used to know. But still, the girl who is and always will be my best friend, and the one I fight hardest for every day.”

Valkyrie was wide-eyed, her gaze fixed on his. He stared back for a moment before they both moved at once and Skulduggery pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around her. She did the same, and the two of them focused on the depth of her breathing for what felt like a long time until Valkyrie spoke softly into his shoulder.

“I’m sorry I left.”

He didn’t move, and the words rested in the air between them.

Then, “Season of forgiveness, and so on and so forth,” Skulduggery murmured.

He pulled back to look at her.

“But no, really. You had to go, Valkyrie. You did what you needed to do, the thing that was best for you at that moment in time, and all I could see was how much I was missing you and that we were apart for so long after all those years of you being always at my side.”

Valkyrie laughed, tears beginning to slip down her cheeks. “You mean you and your planet-sized ego got a reality check, huh?”

Skulduggery reached across the gearstick to wipe them away with a gloved thumb, and this time she let him do it, offering a fragile half-smile in return.

“Yet, all the while I should have been making myself as open and available to you as possible after I let you walk away in that state.” He took in a deep breath he didn’t need. “I am so sorry, Valkyrie, that all I ever did was beg you to come home when you needed me to ask how you were doing, or talk about anything else entirely just to make you feel better for a while.”

She pulled him back into her embrace, resting her chin on his bony shoulder. “You’re forgiven,” she said softly. “And hey, now that you’ve learned to admit your mistakes and to apologize for them, maybe you could teach me how.”

Valkyrie gave a short, bitter laugh to herself. Skulduggery only ran his fingertips over the middle of her back in gentle, reassuring circles. “But first,” he murmured into her hair, “I do believe we have a ball to attend.”

She sat back, smirking at him. “Are you asking to be my escort, detective?”

“As is proper in the traditional rules of courtship,” he replied nonchalantly, adjusting his mirrors and pulling out with an idle glance around the car park.

Valkyrie silently fixed her attention on fiddling with one of her shirt buttons for the rest of the journey and they both pretended she wasn’t blushing.

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 of some. I am heavily disorganised and still formatting because university is trying to kill me. I'm aiming for pre-ball, ball itself, Christmas day, and potentially New Years if I really hate myself.


End file.
